8 Inspiring TED Talks on Gratitude

8 Inspiring TED Talks on Gratitude

Before moving to Vancouver, I lived in Waterloo for almost 10 years. For those that don’t know, Waterloo is a medium-sized city about an hour west of Toronto. It’s a fairly wealthy, tech-driven place with plenty of parks, green spaces, and character. It’s home to two universities, a college, lots of families, and generally, Waterloo is just a really nice place. (With the exception of the winters, which get very, very cold and snowy. But aside from that, a great spot.) It was my home after having spent 5 years living in the Middle East.

Moving to Vancouver this past March, as I’ve said before, was a 4-year dream come true. I loved Waterloo, but Vancouver is amazing for so many other reasons. The mountains, the beaches, the seafood, and the lifestyle – I adore it all. It’s been a while since I lived in a big city, and one of the things I couldn’t help but notice upon arriving was the homeless. Don’t get me wrong – Toronto, just like any big city I’m sure, has a similar situation. It’s not that I hadn’t been exposed to it before, but seeing these people every day has definitely made me more aware that the problem exists.

I’m not sure if people who know nothing but living in big cities eventually just stop noticing, but as terrible as this is going to sound, I can’t help but feel uncomfortable when passing a homeless person on the street. I think a lot of people do. Part of me gets a little scared, but the other part wants to help.

This weekend is Thanksgiving here in Canada, and having passed by a few homeless individuals in my travels, I was feeling especially grateful for all of the good things in my life that others aren’t as fortunate to have experienced. Wanting to translate that gratitude into action, I bundled up a bunch of food items in my kitchen that I knew someone else needed more than me. Depending on the route I take to work, I usually walk past the same person lying on the sidewalk. Sure enough, they were there yesterday to receive the bag I dropped off.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving being about truly giving thanks and not just another food holiday, I’ve rounded up 8 great TED Talks about gratitude and happiness. Having a home is something I’ll never take for granted, but these videos also highlight finding gratitude in the little things. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did, and to all my Canadian readers, Happy Thanksgiving!

Note: If you’re reading this post in your inbox, or if you have trouble seeing the videos below, just click on the links to watch them.

Want to be happy? Be grateful | David Steindl-Rast

If you are grateful, you act out of a sense of enough, not of a sense of scarcity. You’re less fearful, more joyful.

More grateful people enjoy the differences between people and are respectful towards everybody. It doesn’t necessarily mean equality in the world, but it does mean equal respect.

More joyful people make for a more joyful world.

365 Days of Thank You | Brian Doyle

In this talk: A near-death experience led to Brian Doyle’s commitment one Thanksgiving to a goal of saying a genuine thank you to a different person in his life, every day for a year. He talks about what he learned and what happened along the way.

Gratitude, gifting and grandpa | John Styn

The shortest route to getting happier is to do things for other people.

365 grateful project | Hailey Bartholomew

In this talk: After having fallen into a period of depression, Hailey set out on a year-long photo project to document all the things she was grateful for. She noticed that her expectations of other people had stopped her from appreciating how great they really were. She learned that sometimes we don’t see how great life around us is because we’re not looking for it.

The epidemic of smiles and the science of gratitude | Jennifer Moss

In this talk: Jennifer’s story about how ‘faking it until you make it’ – which in her case meant smiling and intensely focusing on the smallest wins during a difficult time in her family’s life – helped re-train her brain to find more gratitude in every day. She encourages us to catalogue every day for 14-30 days (or longer) the things that we’re grateful for. As was the case for her, Jennifer suggests this practice will retrain your brain down a path of positivity.

The power of saying thank you | Laura Trice

In this talk: A super simple, short and sweet TED Talk on the power of saying a specific and genuine thank you. Be honest about the praise you need, and ask others around you what they need to hear too.

The last 2 talks aren’t specifically about gratitude, but they are about happiness. And as I’m sure you’d agree if you’ve watched any of the previous videos, there’s definitely a link between the two!

The happy secret to better work | Shawn Achor

In this talk(which happens to be one of my favourites because Shawn is hilarious):

It isn’t reality that shapes us, but the lens through which you view the world shapes your reality. If you can change the lens, you can change your happiness.

90% of your happiness is determined not by your external world, but by the way your brain processes the world.

We need to reverse the formula for happiness and success. Working harder doesn’t necessarily lead to more success, nor does more success make you feel happier.

Science shows that when we’re happy, we’re more productive. To get there, we need to re-train the brain to seek the positive first.

A rich life with less stuff | The Minimalists

In this talk: What truly makes us happy? Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, also known as The Minimalists, talk about what they’ve learned about the value of community, living deliberately, having a purpose, and what really makes us rich.

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My name is Angela and I've got a fiery passion for turning fresh, healthy ingredients into delicious mouth-watering meals. I love watermelon, green smoothies, and running around Vancouver, the city I'm proud to call home.

10 Comments

Thanks for sharing Angela. The middle school where I teach introduced mindfulness this year. I will definitely be watching some of the TED talks with my advisory students. I’m grateful for our entire family being able to be together for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. And to quote Lucy Maud Montgomery, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”. The Atlantic coast has enjoyed à beautiful fall.

Thanks for you comment, Chrissy! I love hearing about schools that incorporate mindfulness, especially in an age now where students don’t know a world without iPhones and Macbooks. I’m glad you had a lovely long weekend!

I’m in love with your take on Thanksgiving and generosity! It is shockingly easy to be blasé about the really important things by being distracted by the ones that aren’t.
I was in Austria last month and watched the most beautiful act of human selflessness. At the train station volunteers were handing out water and fruit to Syrian refugees bound for Germany. As the train pulled away all the volunteers clapped and the refugees grinning ear to ear waved to those of us on the platform. I bawled for 30 minutes feeling fortunate for my excellent life and deeply saddened/joyful for those on the train. It is a moment I will never forget.
<3

Oh wow, Lauren, that must have been amazing to witness! I’m pretty sure I saw a video on Facebook that captured the same scene and it definitely gave me chills. I’m almost certain I would have started bawling if I’d been there in person as well. Thank you so much for sharing. 🙂

I just moved to Denver from the East coast US last week, and have been super anxious and stressed from the move and adjusting to my new city (I can totally relate to your moving posts from earlier this year!) Thank you for sharing these videos; gratitude is something I really need to focus on at the moment.

Congratulations on your big move, Rebecca! It absolutely can be overwhelming, but if there’s one thing I learned from my own move it was not to expect yourself to have everything in its place (literally and figuratively) right away. Enjoy settling into your new place!

I totally get you with the homeless issue, I live in Toronto and I feel like I’ve slowly become desensitized. It’s the parts of our society that we want to forget but are so painfully there– and these are real people with incredible stories, so I can see why this would make you so uncomfortable.

I will need to come back to these TED talks later but having them in one little place with little summaries is awesome…thank you for this! xo